


Growing the Family Business

by samidha



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Big Brother Dean, F/M, Hunter Jess, Hunter Jessica, Hunter Jessica Moore, Jessica Moore Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-20
Updated: 2009-04-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 13:37:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11556306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/samidha
Summary: "I can't go. I've been having these dreams."





	Growing the Family Business

The first thing Sam says is, "What was he hunting?" And Dean has to be really careful not to show everything on his face--hope, relief, love, obsession, worry. Everything.

Then Sam shakes his head and says, "I can't go," and Dean is going to punch him, he is. It's just that Sam catches his wrist halfway to Sam's smug kid face.

"Listen. You can go, or you can stay here a while and we can go. But I can't go. Not right now."

Dean pulls his arm free of Sam's grip and gives him his best death glare.

Sam blows out a breath. "Look, Dean, I don't expect you to understand this, because I don't even. But I've been having these dreams."

*~*~*

Between the two of them, they give Jessica a crash course. Boogeyman's real, tooth fairy isn't, duh, and Sam's been dreaming these things and Dean isn't really sure if they ever come true but Dean--Dean doesn't think Sam's a liar.

Jess chokes on that for a while, Sam can see her incredulity under the anger, sees the "Excuse me, what?" behind her eyes.

Sam doesn't know if she'll ever believe him about anything ever again, but that's all right--as long as she believes this.

"My brother loves you," Dean offers her. "You have no idea how much my brother--"

That's when she flings her tepid mug of coffee in his face.

But Jess doesn't run away and she doesn't lock herself in the bathroom. She doesn't tell Sam to leave. She doesn't tell Dean to leave, either.

Dean kind of shifts in and out of view after that, pacing a little but not making any noise. It's been so long since Sam was around someone else who could do that, it's almost weird. It feels like home, but it's weird.

Dean lets them talk it out.

She sighs. "You know that big knife you have scares the shit out of me, Sam?"

Sam blinks.

"I mean, I just always-- It's creepy. It looks like something out of a... I don't know." She scrubs her face with her hands. "I thought maybe your dad gave you a little too much paranoia growing up."

Sam scoffs and Dean, standing in the corner, smiles ruefully but doesn't say anything. There's still coffee in his hair.

"I'm not going to let anything touch you, Jess. But when we know--I mean--I'm gonna have to go look for Dad."

"You're losing time already," she says, just a statement of fact.

And, God. Sam loves Jess so fucking much.

"We need to sleep."

"Yeah, that's gonna happen," Jess says, hard-edged and serious.

Sam leans forward, thinks about kissing her but decides not to press his luck. He takes her wrist in his fingers, rubs over the underside with his thumb. "I'll be right here."

"You are kind of a bad-ass, aren't you?" she asks, smiling a little and scrubs at her face again.

"I can be."

Dean flops down onto the couch and kicks off his boots. "Besides, he's got backup. Good night, ladies."

"Ha."

"Hey. Sleep well kids, okay?"

Jess shakes her head a little, rolls her eyes, but smiles as Sam lets her lead him back into their room.

*~*~*

They leave the next morning. It's Jessica's idea. She's definitely not staying in that place, not after getting out of Sam exactly where he sees her in the dream.

Sam tells her and she goes white, so that her eyes stand out bright in her face and Sam never wants to see Jess like that again.

So he throws things into a bag--fills his army duffle, tosses it easily to Dean. Even after four years away and two of active nesting Sam can pack a single bag and consider himself done in less than fifteen minutes.

He looks at the expanse of Jessica's things (normal, this is what normal people do) and he's more mystified about how to handle that.

"When this is all cleared up--we can come back," he says, and she laughs without any humor and flips him off.

"Let's never do that."

Sam sighs. "Okay. Well the trunk's pretty big. But it's got a weapon's rack and stuff. Inside."

Jess literally throws some clothes into one bag, slips her cell phone into the outer pocket, scrawls a note for Becky and tucks it under the door of her place on the way out.

Jess packs five socks, one hoodie, three pairs of underwear, two pairs of jeans, two t-shirts, her Smurf pajama top and shorts, a bra, and a toothbrush.

Sam really fucking loves her. He starts making a shopping list in his head for a stop at a box store as soon as they get five seconds.

*~*~*

It turns out that Sammy's girl plays a wicked game of pool. Dean can still beat her, and handily, but there's skill to work with here and he feels a burst of pride when he thinks about it.

You can check out, but you can never leave, huh, Sammy?

They're going to make a killing with a good girl hustler, are you kidding? This is awesome.

Actually, it's all going kind of ridiculously well apart from the fact that they head out of Jericho with nothing but a pair of coordinates. That means Dad made it out of Jericho, too, and Dean can live with that, at least for now.

It's probably going to be a long haul. It's not like Dad is easy to find when he doesn't want to be.

But it's going to be okay.

Sam's dreams stopped three days ago and Jess doesn't really get what's up with that but neither do Dean or Sam, so whatever. They stopped and Sam's sleeping again. Sam's glowing too.

Dean's little brother is in love. And Dean--you could probably get him to admit he sees why.

*~*~*

It isn't Jess' first hustle that goes kind of bad. It's the third. And it's not anything Jess even did, and God, Dean is pissed.

He gets there before Sam, because Sam's just getting back from the bathroom (lightweight) and a few steps from where Dean's standing when he sees it.

There's this fucking tank of a guy sidling up to Jess and pressing in close and Dean--he gets a certain distance away and just goes full-on Winchester, uses a strategically-landed punch to knock this guy who probably weighs at least fifty pounds more than Dean right on his ass.

"What the fuck, you fucker!" the bastard snarls.

"What the fuck is, come near her again and I will break you in pieces, asshole."

"You her man? Maybe you shoulda been here if you didn't want no one to touch the merchandise, you--"

"No."

"Yeah. Right. So what, you Robin Hood?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Show me your tights, Robin. Homo."

Dean pulls him up by the collar, adrenaline pumping like hell in his veins, and he punches the guy again, hard enough he hits teeth and feels them shift under his fist.

"She's my sister-in-law," Dean growls, "And if you say one more word to me you will be missing more than your teeth, you pathetic fuck."

The guy's got his hands cupping his mouth now, blood oozing between his fingers.

Dean's suddenly aware of Sam standing with them now--on the other side of Jessica, rubbing her back a little.

Jessica looks between Dean and the guy on the floor and back again, rubs a hand nervously over her sleeve and looks to the door.

"We're getting out of here," Sam says.

And Dean follows.

Jess doesn't play pool for about a week after that--doesn't go to the bars with them at all, even. Dean isn't worried, because Sam isn't worried (pissed, not worried) and Jess seems okay. She teases Dean about BOC, how she wonders if they ever knew they were channeling the Winchester boys, and Sam grins and shakes his head a little.

She curls up in the back of the Impala and sleeps on the long stretches like she's been doing it all her life.

Dean knows she's going to be okay. Which means Sam's okay. Which means things are pretty okay from where Dean's sitting.

*~*~*

The night the fucking plane crash case wraps up, Jess comes to make sure that Dean's okay.

Jess stays behind, because two are less conspicuous than three and it's her idea that a tag-along with only a few weeks' training in sparring and no knowledge of Church Latin would only trip them up. They had better both get back to her in one piece, or else she will kill them both.

When Sam calls her from inside the plane as it taxies safely to the gate, Jess is already way past drunk.

When they get to the motel again that night, she runs (tripping over her long legs but running all the same) and hugs them, buries her face in Sam's hair for a few long moments.

Then she sees the way Dean's still shaking apart with adrenaline turned bad, and she crosses the room to the three six packs she bought while they were gone and gives Dean the last one out of the first box.

She crosses to hers and Sam's bed and pats the comforter beside where she sits down.

"Drink up, brother," she advises. "It'll get better soon."

After that, Jess brings the second six-pack out to the parking lot so Sam can sleep in peace and she sits with Dean while he drinks and Does. Not. Talk. About it.

"Hey Dean?" she asks a little muzzily when he's on his fourth beer and she really should be drinking water. "You 'member that giant slimeball in Wisconsin?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm not gonna forget that soon."

Jess rolls her eyes. "I am. Bastard's not gonna put me off playin', dammit," she growls low. "You know that right?"

"Sure."

"Cause you're a good teacher."

"Yeah, well, you were already damn good, kid."

"You taught me to be sneaky," Jess says and giggles. "I was real transparent before."

"Ah. The Winchester Way, yeah, that part can be mine'n Sam's," Dean says, and grins.

"Mmm. Yeah. But that guy... Um. You said. You told him I was your sister-in-law," she says and blushes.

Dean looks at her steady.

"You think he would? Propose?"

"Man, Jess, I ain't spoilin' a surprise like that."

"But you kinda did," she crows.

Dean laughs. "Okay. Well. I don't know, Jess, s'not like he took me ring shopping. But you gotta know he loves you. I've never seen Sam--" he shrugs. "Anyway, you're ours now, yeah. Far as I'm concerned it's pretty much a done deal."

"That's good. That sounds good."

"It's pretty much guaranteed I will kick his ass if he doesn't."

Jess grins. "Don't hurt him too bad, I like him."

Dean laughs. "Yeah. Me too."

"Can I tell you a secret?"

"Mmm?"

She pulls a little black box out of her pocket. "Was kind of thinking... of asking him. Whattaya think?"

Dean grins at her, big enough to make his cheeks hurt. "I think that's the awesomest thing I've heard all day."


End file.
